Economy

Poor? Unemployed? It's Your Own Damned Fault!

October 7, 2011 by Left in Alabama

Republican frontrunner Herman Cain:

"If you don't have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself!"

I'm tempted to say something about so-called compassionate conservatism here, but I'll content myself with asking why the hell is it that the free market gods (otherwise known as "job creators") get all the credit for any economic good news, but presto change-o, when there are 5 applicants for every job and real wages for workers haven't increased since 1975, when all the economic gains of the past 30 years have gone to the super-rich, why the hell do Republicans then turn around and blame it on the workers?  It makes no sense to give the "job creators" a get out of jail free card when things turn to crap and it's positively mean-spirited to tell unemployed and underemplyed workers in this economy that it's their own damned fault.

Dollars, sense and the new American Resistance

October 5, 2011 by Kenneth

(Cross-posted at Saint Petersblog & Daily Kos)

 

“There’s something happening here

What it is ain’t exactly clear…”

Steven Stills wrote those opening lines of Buffalo Springfield’s classic protest song, “”, in 1966. It wasn’t just the Vietnam War tearing America apart at the time. It was the struggle for Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, and some measure of socioeconomic stability for America’s millions of poor, elderly and disabled citizens.

It’s no accident that the social unrest and political activism marking those years was accompanied by historic enactment of the Civil Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid, by a Democratic Congress and President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who even declared ”War On Poverty” in 1964.

Gov. Jobs? More like governor jobbing Wisconsin

October 4, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

To boldly go....Gov. Scott Walker's job-creation fervor so far has been mostly all tax cuts for corporations ... and hot air. The state's employment shortfall actually has worsened in Walker's first year but the one thing he wants us to believe is that "job creators" -- that would be businesses which, in the main, are creating virtually no jobs while shedding scads of others -- are "uncertain" about the future and thus need more hand-holding and palm-greasing from the state Capitol.

And look at this: Walker's antics have come at the cost of the state's highest budget in history, significant cuts in wages and benefits for state employees and more spending on loyalist hacks. He's replaced scads of civil servants with political appointees answerable to him, paying some of them tens of thousands of dollars more annually than the veteran professionals they have replaced, despite their lesser experience.

On Imperfection, Or, How Do You Choose A New Bank?

October 3, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Like a lot of people these days, we have come to the conclusion that it’s time to change our lousy bank.

And it wasn’t even like we chose badly, either – we were customers of Washington Mutual for almost two decades, and we loved ‘em: they were nice people to deal with, they didn’t constantly hammer you every time you came in to the branch with desperate sales pitches, and they didn’t even charge you for using another bank’s cash machines.

It turns out, however, that all that beneficence came at a cost: WaMu made a lot of money making sketchy mortgage loans, and when it all came crashing down, we found ourselves customers of JPMorgan Chase, who we now hate with the fire of a thousand suns.

But it turns out choosing a new bank ain’t all that easy – and that’s where you come into today’s conversation.